


Valiancy

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [55]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Battle Scenes, F/F, F/M, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Near Death Experiences, Rescue Missions, Sisters, Team Dynamics, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 09:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2145471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once inside Billith's lair, one half of the team does rescue, the other half does research.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valiancy

**Author's Note:**

> Part three, "Nothing Ordinary."

“Are you sure about this?” Sookie asks.

Adilyn nods for all four of them. “It makes sense,” she says. “And y’all are here to keep it from gettin’ outta hand or whatever.”

“Or whatever,” Lafayette repeats helpfully. He’s perched atop Sam’s car at the moment, halfway playing lookout.

Braelyn extends her index finger, motions Willa closer all come-hither. “Just prick it,” she instructs calmly, ignoring how Pam has to stifle a laugh. “Just a drop like you promised.”

Wide-eyed, Willa nods and steps forward, lets her fangs pop; for a split second she feels embarrassed about taking Braelyn’s finger in her mouth, afraid it’s too intimate, but she can’t really help it, can she? She just barely pierces the skin, begins to lick at her all kittenishly. “Holy _shit_ ,” she whispers.

“Thanks,” Braelyn beams, because that’s _definitely_ the appropriate response, and the other pairs all repeat the process.

Sam and Luna are keeping watch, too, scanning for enemies, and Jason and Sookie are there just in case any of the vampires need to be reigned in, but right now it seems the only one of them who’d be having that problem is Nora. Her mouth has been open and her pupils blown since the first drop of fairy blood was spilled, and as such Eric has had one hand in hers and the other tucked warningly in her back pocket. But all she does is watch, she clings to her brother and whimpers softly but she stays still.

“I gotta say,” Pam declares, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, “I think I see what all the fuss is about.”

“Don’t be nasty, Pam,” Sookie chides.

“I’m tryin’ to be nice,” Pam counters.

“Enough bickering,” Eric bellows. “Lafayette, you’re fine staying with the cars and things?”

“You know it,” Lafayette agrees. “I make a good-ass ground control. Promise.”

“Much obliged,” Eric says with a courteous tip of his head before turning to look Nora in the eyes. “ _Syster_ , _visa oss vägen._ ”

They’re parked in what Nora promises is a lot that the Authority had never had surveillance on (not that it would matter, the night everything went to shit they destroyed at least 80% of the tech in the building and according to Jessica “Bill’s okay at using stuff but he’s kinda hopeless at putting things back together, so unless he found kickass support staff…”) and they let her lead them toward a back entrance of the Authority building (Sam, Luna, and Jason take up the rear, each fairy girl buddies up with their vampire – by default Sookie has dibs on Eric, though neither of them discuss it).

And there are no guards on the exit. “Maybe he doesn’t have as many lackeys as we thought,” Charlaine suggests hopefully, and Nora’s about to tell her it’s more likely a lucky accident but she doesn’t have the heart to do.

Her blood is still coded into the mechanics of the building, so it’s not hard to get in. “Won’t that tell Billith we’re here?” Danika asks.

“He’ll know soon enough anyway,” Tara points out, wryly but also gently.

They’ve only been in the building a few minutes before a pair of newborns – one male, one female – comes traipsing around the corner.

“What the –”

Before he can finish his sentence Willa has sprung forward to stake the both of them, smiling gleefully once she’s done.

“You’re not gonna have time to gloat after every one,” Pam whispers to her little sister.

“Oh, hush,” Willa and Tara mutter in unison (the smiles they give each other subsequently are similar but _definitely_ not coming from the same place just given the looks in their eyes).

“Are we just gonna tiptoe around two-by-two until we find the fucker?” Jason asks.

“Tiptoeing isn’t gonna count for much if you’re yelling out our plans,” Charlaine sasses, her own voice much quieter than Jason’s.

“Still,” he says, lowering his tone to a whisper accordingly.

“Actually,” Nora says, “we’ll be splitting off in two groups and hopefully reconvening _here_.”  She pulls one of her hand-drawn maps from her pocket and points to the main room.

“I don’t know where the hell that is,” Jason points out.

“And that is why this is where we split off,” Nora says resolutely. “Eric and I will take a delegation apiece. Remember, like we’d discussed.”

“I’ll take the Stackhouses as well as Jessica, Pam, and their girls,” Eric says. “The others of you will stay with Nora. We reconvene, as she said, in the lounge.”

Without warning, the girls all fall into a giant group hug, one that after a moment Sookie gets pulled into; though they’re staying together, Sam and Luna squeeze hands. Shrugging, Pam moves to press a kiss to Tara’s cheek that Tara turns into a kiss on the mouth. And Eric shifts his attention to his youngest, whispering a “ _lycka till_ ” in her ear, before he motions Nora close and kisses her in that rough-but-loving way of theirs. Jessica flits about offering hugs to all of those not in her designated group, lingering with her arms around Nora for just the slightest moment (only Adilyn really notices).

 

* * *

 

There was no telling how wrecked the elevators would be, so though it’s smoke-blackened and ashy the stairwell down to the lower levels is a better bet.

“Where are we goin’?” Charlaine asks.

“In the time of the Authority,” Eric explains, “prisoners were kept down here.”

Pam rolls her eyes at his grandioseness. “If they’ve got a rainy day stash of humans, they’re likely to be down in the cells,” she translates. “And what the hell kinda rescue team would we be if we didn’t free them?”

It’s a fair point, and as they make their way through the remains of the lower level’s lobby Charlaine and Adilyn contemplate it seriously. Even still they can’t keep from noticing the looks on their vampires’ faces, Pam’s mildly disgusted and Jessica's anxious.

“You okay?” Adilyn asks Jessica.

“Just thinkin’,” Jessica mumbles. “This time a few weeks ago my Maker had me locked up for refusin’ to kill _him_.” With a nod to Jason.

“Why did he want you to kill Sookie’s brother?” Adilyn asks, perplexed. “’Cause of the fairy thing?”

“Jason’s not a fairy,” Jessica shrugs. “I mean, it’d make sense considering how everyone wants to bang him, but it skips people that far down the line or somethin’. I’d promised to turn him vampire, is the thing. I wanted to keep him safe from other vampires tryin’ to do that by sayin’ I would, but I wasn’t gonna really. It’d be no different than killing him outright.”

“Huh,” Adilyn says. “But turning saved Tara’s life when she…”

“Saved her, killed me and saved me both,” Jessica agrees. “Depends on the situation.” She wrinkles her nose. “And I guess Bill mighta had me locked up for killin’ his henchmen guard guys, too.”

“Still, your own dad shouldn’t lock you up,” Adilyn declares. “I’m sorry, Jess.”

Jessica gives the girl a tentative smile. “Thanks,” she says. “No going back now, I guess.”

 

* * *

 

“First step, the control room,” Nora says.

“This building doesn’t make any more sense on foot than it did by air duct,” Sam mutters to Luna.

“Bill isn’t gonna be running his own security team,” Tara points out.

“No,” Nora agrees, “but we need to see how much of the system is still up and running, use what we need to and disable the rest.”

A pack of minions, this bunch dressed like they’d all been taken from the same wedding party (Braelyn doesn’t say anything, but she recognizes the girls’ dresses from TLC), rounds on them and immediately go stiff and confused.

“Who the hell are you?” one of them asks. “And what smells so good?”

The three vampires exchange glances, then without missing a beat Nora slips into her faux-Southern drawl and says, “I'm Allison, this is Stacy and Kendra. We’re from Shreveport, we brought gifts.”

This seems to appease the bridesmaids, but the sole groomsman asks, “Are they human? They don't smell human.”

“Of course they’re human,” Willa chirps, fixing on her Stacy-smile. “What else would they be?”

“But they’re only for the man in charge,” Tara takes over saying.

“For him to do with as he sees fit,” Nora offers, smiling beatifically. “We would never presume to know his plan, or hers, praise Lilith.”

While she’s doing that little devotional, Willa and Tara and Braelyn and Danika all reach for their guns; before the group can react, they fire and watch the vampires explode in unison.

“You know that was fuckin’ creepy, right?” Tara asks her grandaunt. “All that…”

“Do I ever,” Nora mutters. “Now as I was saying, the control room.”

 

* * *

 

“Ugh,” Pam mutters. “Unwashed humans.”

Sure enough, the cells are occupied; presumably the locks are still disengaged, which accounts for the padlocks holding each door closed. Some cells hold only one or two humans, some hold upwards of ten.

“Are they… categorized?” Adilyn asks in an appalled whisper.

“By age,” Eric suggests. The youngest prisoners look to be no more than seven (they’re the largest group, crammed in one cell) and the oldest upwards of sixty, and they’re all cowering at the sight of these newcomers.

“Fuck this,” Sookie mutters before raising her voice to a shout. “Hey, y’all. We’re gonna get you out of here, but you gotta promise one thing, okay?” The crowd rumbles, confused and curious. “Just whatever you do, don’t scream.”

“Why?” a voice calls out.

But that question is answered when Sookie, Adilyn, and Charlaine light up their hands and start blasting the locks to open the doors.

“Find your family or friends if you got ‘em and follow me,” Jason shouts, waving the throng of people toward the exit. “I’m gonna get you outta here.”

“By yourself?” Sookie exclaims.

“I’ll be fine,” he says. “I got guns, I got good aim, I’ll stick to the path we already cut and take ‘em straight back to the lot where Lafayette's waiting.”

“Be careful,” Sookie implores.

“I promise,” he says with his cockiest little smirk.

“Double promise?” Jessica whispers, suddenly right there blinking up at him.

“Aw, hell,” Pam groans, pulling a face. “Charlotte and I –”

“ _Charlaine_ ,” said girl shouts indignantly.

“Charlaine, Charmander, who the fuck cares,” Pam grumbles dismissively, even though she’d messed up entirely on purpose. (She ignores Adilyn’s whispered “a Pokémon, really?”) “ _Char_ and I will see you out of the building.” To Eric she says, “Back in a minute. Don’t wait up.”

Eric brushes a hand down her jawline, smiling fondly. “You know not to do anything dumb,” he says.

“Always,” Pam agrees, flashing a brilliant grin. She grabs Charlaine’s wrist and drags her toward the others, muttering instructions and ignoring the way the girl’s heart races.

 

* * *

 

“As I expected,” Nora announces, skimming through digital files. “Billith hasn’t updated any of it or repaired what we fucked up, he’s just been living off the emergency power.”

“That’s good, right?” Willa asks.

“Mostly,” Nora agrees. “It would _help_ to have some in-building camera feed, but –”

“ _No_ ,” they hear Sam shout from outside the door.

Tara speeds over to open the door and investigate, and what she sees stuns her. A vampire (likely of an age with her) is kneeling over Luna’s prone body, drinking from her wrist hungrily, while another two pin Sam to the wall so he has to watch.

“Let me handle this,” Tara says to the women inside the control room.

She lunges, then, for the vampire feeding from Luna, staking him instantly. “Ooh, bad move, sweetheart,” one of the two holding Sam laughs.

“I’m not your sweetheart,” Tara hisses, but before she can move the vampires snap both of Sam’s legs easy as twigs and drop him to the floor. The horrifying sound rouses Luna, who looks pale, nearly faded, but still present enough to manage horror.

“Luna, no,” Sam whimpers. “I’ll be fine. Don’t –”

But Luna shifts into a lion and tears one of the vampires’ heads off, letting the blood spatter her, then goes for the other vampire; Tara opens a vein and urges Sam to drink, trying not to gape at the way Luna licks blood from her paws almost daintily.

“Are y’all okay?” Danika calls through the door.

“Getting there,” Sam calls back.

**Author's Note:**

>  _syster, visa oss vägen_ ; "sister, show us the way"  
>  _lycka till_ ; "good luck"


End file.
